Tracking analytic information for deep links between mobile applications executing on a client device

ABSTRACT

An application linking framework provides cross-platform mobile application-to-application linking, including allowing linking into particular states in an application via a deep link presented in another application. When a client device receives a content item including a deep link, the client device can also receive a tracking request for tracking user interaction with an application associated with the content item or deep link in the content item via an application linking tool. The tool can also provide suggestions to an application owner of actions to take based on the analytics and can track advertisement conversions across applications.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/986,530, filed Apr. 30, 2014, which is incorporated by reference inits entirety.

BACKGROUND

This disclosure relates generally to an application linking framework,and more specifically to cross-platform mobileapplication-to-application linking, including allowing deep linking intoparticular states in applications.

While linking between web-based content is commonplace, the ability tolink between native mobile applications has not been readily availablefor application developers. Current solutions have not provided an easyway for application-to-application linking that works across variousdifferent mobile platforms and that allows mobile “deep linking” fromone application to a specific page or state within another applicationrather than just opening up the content in a mobile web browser. Yet,for online systems the ability to link its mobile application content toother mobile applications and to allow other mobile applications to linkto it would provide a lot more flexibility to its users.

As an example of such an online system for which mobile applicationlinking would be valuable, social networking systems allow users toconnect to and communicate with other users, including through theirmobile devices. Mobile social networking applications can providecontent (e.g., news stories, advertisements, etc.) to users within anewsfeed or other sources in the application, and this content may havea link to content for which there is another mobile application.Currently, though, the content for the other mobile application isinconveniently provided on a mobile web browser rather than within theother mobile application itself, and the presentation of the content maynot be as intended by the other mobile application. Similarly,applications developers cannot simply link their mobile applicationsdirectly to content within the mobile social networking application.

There is also not currently a system that provides the ability to trackany linking that might occur between mobile applications. Tracking linksthat occur between different mobile applications would allow applicationdevelopers to better understand how other applications interact withtheir own and would allow better ability to track advertising andconversions.

SUMMARY

An application linking framework provides cross-platform mobileapplication-to-application linking, including allowing deep linking intoparticular states in mobile or native applications (“apps”). The mobileapplication linking framework makes it easy for application developersto deep link between mobile applications across different mobileoperating systems (e.g., iOS®, ANDROID™, etc.) and different devicetypes (e.g., iPHONE™, iPAD™ WINDOWS™ phone etc.). In one embodiment, themobile environment is made addressable similar to the web environment,such that mobile applications can use an address to identify and pointto other mobile applications, causing those native mobile applicationsto open to a specific state in the application rather than sending usersto a mobile web version of the application.

The application linking framework allows for content in a mobileapplication installed on a client device to deep link to a particularstate in another application. An online system can act as a contentserver that serves content to an associated mobile application in amobile environment. For example, the online system can be a socialnetworking system with an associated mobile social networkingapplication that can serve content, such as ads, to social networkingsystem users. As an ad server, the social networking system or otheronline system can present application-to-application linked ads in themobile environment. Such an ad is associated with an advertiser and caninclude a deep link identifying an additional application associatedwith the presented ad (e.g., a deep link in a travel ad to a specifictravel deal page in a mobile travel app). The deep link includes anapplication identifier (also referred to as “app ID”) associated withthe additional application (e.g., app ID for mobile travel app) and oneor more instructions for execution by the additional application toconfigure the additional application to a specific state (e.g.,instructions to configure the mobile travel app to a state that displaysthe particular travel deal referenced in the ad). A state of theadditional application identifies data received by the additionalapplication as well as data presented by the additional application.Instructions included in a deep link are executed by the additionalapplication identified by the deep link to configure the additionalapplication into a state where content associated with the advertisementor other suitable content is presented based on the instructions. Deeplinks included in various advertisements or other content includedifferent instructions, allowing different content/advertisements todifferently configure states of additional applications. Additionally, adeep link may include metadata describing information associated withthe user, information associated with the application, informationassociated with the client device, information associated with theoperating system of the client device, or any other suitable metadata.In some embodiments, the information included in the deep link acts asan address, similar to a URL, which allows one mobile application tocause another mobile application to open to a particular state, thusproviding addressability to the mobile environment. Ads will commonly beused as an example throughout this description, though theapplication-to-application linking, including deep linking, can be usedto link between any content within mobile applications.

As one example that relates to advertising in the mobile environment, ifan ad identifies a specific product or service, a deep link included inthe ad specifies instructions that cause an additional applicationidentified by the deep link to retrieve and present content about thespecific product or service to the user. In another example, a deep linkincluded in an ad includes instructions for populating fields maintainedby an additional application with information maintained by anapplication that presents the ad. Instructions included in a deep linkwithin an ad may also identify an offer described by the ad and acommand to apply the offer to one or more objects maintained by anadditional application identified by the deep link. In another example,an ad includes an input for performing an action, and a deep linkincluded in the ad specifies instructions for performing the action viaan additional application identified by the deep link.

When an ad including a deep link is presented via an applicationexecuting on a client device, the application receives an indicationwhen a user interacts with the ad and determines if the additionalapplication identified by the deep link is installed on the clientdevice. If the additional application is not installed on the clientdevice, an application installation interface, such as anotherapplication or a web page for purchasing, downloading, or installing theadditional application, is displayed on the client device usinginformation identifying the additional application from the deep link.In another embodiment, if the additional application is not installed onthe client device, the system can default to the mobile web version ofthe application content.

However, if the application determines that the additional applicationis installed on the client device, instructions from the deep link arecommunicated from the application that presented the ad to theadditional application identified by the deep link. By executing theinstructions from the deep link received from the application, theadditional application is configured into a state specified by theinstructions. The state of the additional application from execution ofthe instructions from the deep link is then presented to the user viathe client device. This simplifies user interaction with the additionalapplication by configuring the additional application to a state basedon information from the advertisement, which more easily allows the userto retrieve information relevant to the advertisement from theadditional application.

In other embodiments, a deep link is associated with an input or withcontent presented by an application. The deep link includes anapplication identifier of an additional application and one or moreinstructions for the additional application to perform an action basedon information from the application identified by the instructions. Whenthe additional application receives the instructions specified by thedeep link from the application, the additional application executes theinstructions and is configured into a state specified by theinstructions, which is presented to the user. For example, anapplication identifies an additional application and a search querythrough a deep link associated with an input presented by theapplication. When a user accesses the input, the search query iscommunicated from the application to the additional application, whichperforms a search across one or more sources based on the search queryand subsequently presents the search results as the state of theadditional application. Thus, deep links may also allow applications toleverage functionality of additional applications executing on a clientdevice to provide a user with additional information.

In addition to communicating instructions of the deep link from theapplication that presented the ad or other content to the additionalapplication identified by the deep link, a reverse deep link describinga state of the application when the ad was presented can be communicatedto the additional application as well. Similar to the deep link, thereverse deep link includes one or more additional instructions and anadditional application identifier that identifies the application fromwhich the instructions were received as well as, optionally, contentdescribing the state of the application when the identified ad waspresented. The additional application can present the reverse deep linkand/or the content included in the reverse deep link when presenting thestate associated with the instructions included in the deep link. Forexample, a user playing a game in a game mobile app can interact with anoffer in the game that deep links to a state in another mobile app thatpresents the offer, and the offer mobile app can provide the user withan option to return to a particular state in the game mobile app thatcorresponds with the game level the user was playing (e.g., click hereto return to Level 7 of Game X).

When the user interacts with the reverse deep link via the client device(e.g., the link in the offer mobile app to return to Level 7 in the gamemobile app), an additional indication is received by the client device,for example, by the additional application (e.g., the offer mobile app)and communicated to the application (e.g., the game mobile app)associated with the application identifier included in the reverse deeplink. After receiving the additional indication, one or more additionalinstructions included in the reverse deep link are communicated by theclient device to the application associated with the reverse deep link.Thus, the application executes the one or more additional instructionsand presents a state of the application based on the one or moreadditional instructions (e.g., the game mobile app presents Level 7 ofGame X).

In some embodiments, when an indication of a user interaction with adeep link or a reverse deep link is received by the client device, theclient device sends analytic information describing the user interactionto an online system associated with the linked content. For example, ifan additional application that is not associated with the online systempresents a reverse deep link including additional instructionsdescribing a state of an application associated with the online system,the application can send a payload to the additional applicationincluding a tracking request. The tracking request is a request to trackinformation associated with the reverse deep link, such as informationdescribing user actions on the additional application that areassociated with the reverse deep link, content of the identified ad, andany combination thereof. The information of the tracking request is thencommunicated from the additional application to the originatingapplication, and the client device sends analytic information describingthe user interaction associated with the additional application to theonline system. For example, an ad for a product in a mobile socialnetworking app can include a deep link to another store mobile app forpurchasing the product and the deep link can include a tracking requestthat asks the store mobile app to ping back the mobile social networkingapp regarding whether the user made the purchase, and thus the adresulted in a conversion.

Analytic information of a deep link or a reverse deep link included inan ad or other content can describe interaction statistics associatedwith the deep link, applications receiving the deep link orcommunicating the deep link, user profile information of a user to whomthe deep link was presented, general social application usage dataassociated with a timestamp when the deep link was presented, and anycombination thereof. This information can be used by owners of mobileapplications to track links between their applications and otherapplications allowing them to gather more information about their appsin the mobile environment, including what apps are linking to your apps,what apps you are linking to, what users following these links are doingat the apps linked to, and other usage information about time of dayapps are used, time spent on an app, how often the app is used, etc.Where the analytics are used by advertisers, the analytic informationassociated with an ad of an advertiser can then be presented to anadvertiser via a client device associated with the advertiser.Suggestions and reasons for the suggestions can also be presented to theadvertiser based on the analytic information, assisting the advertiseror online system during ad creation for the advertiser.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system environment in which an onlinesystem operates, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an online system, in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for presenting content associated withan advertisement using an additional application identified by theapplication to a user of an online system, in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method for communicating a state of anapplication to an additional application identified by the applicationand presenting a deep link associated with the state of the applicationto a user of the online system, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method for tracking analytic informationdescribing user interaction with a deep link presented to a user of anonline system on an application associated with the online system, inaccordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method for communicating an invite to anevent via an application to an additional application for presentationto a user of the online system associated with the additionalapplication, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a method for generating an ad for an advertiserbased on a deep link provided by the advertiser, in accordance with anembodiment.

FIGS. 8A-8D illustrate states of applications being linked to or fromvia a deep link, in accordance with an embodiment.

The figures depict various embodiments for purposes of illustrationonly. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the followingdiscussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methodsillustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principlesdescribed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

System Architecture

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system environment 100 for an onlinesystem 140. The system environment 100 shown by FIG. 1 comprises one ormore client devices 110, a network 120, one or more third-party systems130, and the online system 140. In alternative configurations, differentand/or additional components may be included in the system environment100. The embodiments described herein can be adapted to any suitableonline systems such as social networking systems and messaging systems(e.g., WHATSAPP, MESSENGER, etc.).

The client devices 110 are one or more computing devices capable ofreceiving user input as well as transmitting and/or receiving data viathe network 120. In one embodiment, a client device 110 is aconventional computer system, such as a desktop or a laptop computer.Alternatively, a client device 110 may be a mobile device havingcomputer functionality, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), amobile telephone, a smartphone, tablet, or another suitable device, suchas any mobile device that executes native mobile applications (native ormobile apps) developed for use on particular mobile platforms ordevices. A client device 110 is configured to communicate via thenetwork 120. In one embodiment, a client device 110 executes anapplication allowing a user of the client device 110 to interact withthe online system 140. For example, a client device 110 executes abrowser application to enable interaction between the client device 110and the online system 140 via the network 120. In another embodiment, aclient device 110 interacts with the online system 140 through anapplication programming interface (API) running on a native operatingsystem of the client device 110, such as IOS® or ANDROID™.

A client device 110 includes an application interface module 115, whichcommunicates information between different applications executing on theclient device 110. For example, the application interface module 115receives an application identifier and one or more instructionsassociated with the application identifier and communicates theinstructions to an application corresponding to the applicationidentifier. In one embodiment, an application identifies an additionalapplication and one or more instructions for communication to theadditional application to the application interface module 115, whichcommunicates the instructions to the additional application. In someembodiments, if the application interface module 115 receives anapplication identifier that does not correspond to an applicationinstalled on the client device 110, the application interface module 115presents an application installation interface via the client device 110prompting a user to install an application corresponding to theapplication identifier.

As one example in which the online system 140 is a social networkingsystem, the social networking system can be a server that serves socialnetworking content to the client devices 110. Where the client devices110 are mobile devices, these devices can include a mobile socialnetworking application (e.g., FACEBOOK® mobile app) or other mobile app(e.g., a messaging or content-sharing app, such as MESSENGER, WHATSAPP,SNAPCHAT, etc.). The social networking system 140 can serve content fordisplay via the mobile social networking application. This mobile socialnetworking application can include deep links to various other mobileapplications on the client devices 110 (e.g., deep links from ads toproduct or service pages, from invitations to event pages, from newsstories to articles relating to those news stories, from news storiesabout products to pages for those products, among other deep links).Similarly, the other mobile applications on the client devices caninclude deep links to the mobile social networking application (e.g.,deep links from invitations to social networking event pages, from adsto business pages on the social networking system, among other deeplinks).

The client devices 110 are configured to communicate via the network120, which may comprise any combination of local area and/or wide areanetworks, using both wired and/or wireless communication systems. In oneembodiment, the network 120 uses standard communications technologiesand/or protocols. For example, the network 120 includes communicationlinks using technologies such as Ethernet, 802.11, worldwideinteroperability for microwave access (WiMAX), 3G, 4G, code divisionmultiple access (CDMA), digital subscriber line (DSL), etc. Examples ofnetworking protocols used for communicating via the network 120 includemultiprotocol label switching (MPLS), transmission controlprotocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), hypertext transport protocol(HTTP), simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP), and file transfer protocol(FTP). Data exchanged over the network 120 may be represented using anysuitable format, such as hypertext markup language (HTML) or extensiblemarkup language (XML). In some embodiments, all or some of thecommunication links of the network 120 may be encrypted using anysuitable technique or techniques.

One or more third party systems 130 may be coupled to the network 120for communicating with the online system 140, which is further describedbelow in conjunction with FIG. 2. In one embodiment, a third partysystem 130 is an application provider communicating informationdescribing applications for execution by a client device 110 orcommunicating data to client devices 110 for use by an applicationexecuting on the client device. In other embodiments, a third partysystem 130 provides content or other information for presentation via aclient device 110. A third party system 130 may also communicateinformation to the online system 140, such as advertisements, content,or information about an application provided by the third party system130.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an architecture of an online system 140. Insome embodiments, the online system 140 is a social networking system.FIG. 2 illustrates modules associated with online system 140 includingthose modules that might be found in a social networking system 140,though such social networking system modules may be absent in otherembodiments of the online system 140. Since the social networking systemis one example of an online system 140 that could be used, the socialnetworking system is referred to throughout this description as anexample via which the invention is illustrated. However, even where thesocial networking system is referred to throughout, it is understoodthat the system can include other online systems besides socialnetworking systems.

The online system/social networking system 140 shown in FIG. 2 includesa user profile store 205, a content store 210, an action logger 215, anaction log 220, an edge store 225, an ad store 230, application linkingmodule 235, a deep link generation module 240, an application linkingaddressability store 245, and a web server 250. As stated previously,the online system 140 shown in FIG. 2 can be a social networking system,a messaging system, or any other suitable online system. In otherembodiments, the online system 140 may include additional, fewer, ordifferent components for various applications. Conventional componentssuch as network interfaces, security functions, load balancers, failoverservers, management and network operations consoles, and the like arenot shown so as to not obscure the details of the system architecture.

Each user of the online system 140 is associated with a user profile,which is stored in the user profile store 205. A user profile includesdeclarative information about the user that was explicitly shared by theuser and may also include profile information inferred by the onlinesystem 140. In one embodiment, a user profile includes multiple datafields, each describing one or more attributes of the correspondingonline system user. Examples of information stored in a user profileinclude biographic, demographic, and other types of descriptiveinformation, such as work experience, educational history, gender,hobbies or preferences, location and the like. A user profile may alsostore other information provided by the user, for example, images orvideos. In certain embodiments, images of users may be tagged withinformation identifying the online system users displayed in an image. Auser profile in the user profile store 205 may also maintain referencesto actions by the corresponding user performed on content items in thecontent store 210 and stored in the action log 220.

While user profiles in the user profile store 205 are frequentlyassociated with individuals, allowing individuals to interact with eachother via the online system 140, user profiles may also be stored forentities such as businesses or organizations. This allows an entity toestablish a presence on the online system 140 for connecting andexchanging content with other online system users. The entity may postinformation about itself, about its products or provide otherinformation to users of the online system using a brand page associatedwith the entity's user profile. Other users of the online system mayconnect to the brand page to receive information posted to the brandpage or to receive information from the brand page. A user profileassociated with the brand page may include information about the entityitself, providing users with background or informational data about theentity.

The content store 210 stores objects that each represent various typesof content. Examples of content represented by an object include a pagepost, a status update, a photograph, a video, a link, a shared contentitem, a gaming application achievement, a check-in event at a localbusiness, a brand page, or any other type of content as well as a deeplink, further described herein, linking to a page or otherwise state ofan application associated with the online system 140 presenting thecontent. Online system users may create objects stored by the contentstore 210, such as status updates, photos tagged by users to beassociated with other objects in the online system, events, groups orapplications. In some embodiments, objects are received from third-partyapplications or third-party applications separate from the online system140. In one embodiment, objects in the content store 210 representsingle pieces of content, or content “items.” Hence, online system usersare encouraged to communicate with each other by posting text andcontent items of various types of media to the online system 140 throughvarious communication channels. This increases the amount of interactionof users with each other and increases the frequency with which usersinteract within the online system 140. A content item can also be anadvertisement associated with an advertiser, where advertisementsassociated with advertisers are further described below in conjunctionwith the ad store 230.

The action logger 215 receives communications about user actionsinternal to and/or external to the online system 140, populating theaction log 220 with information about user actions. Examples of actionsinclude adding a connection to another user, sending a message toanother user, uploading an image, reading a message from another user,viewing content associated with another user, and attending an eventposted by another user. In addition, a number of actions may involve anobject and one or more particular users, so these actions are associatedwith those users as well and stored in the action log 220.

The action log 220 may be used by the online system 140 to track useractions on the online system 140, as well as actions on third partysystems 130 that communicate information to the online system 140. Usersmay interact with various objects on the online system 140, andinformation describing these interactions is stored in the action log220. Examples of interactions with objects include: commenting on posts,sharing links, checking-in to physical locations via a mobile device,accessing content items, and any other suitable interactions. Additionalexamples of interactions with objects on the online system 140 that areincluded in the action log 220 include: commenting on a photo album,communicating with a user, establishing a connection with an object,joining an event, joining a group, creating an event, authorizing anapplication, using an application, expressing a preference for an object(“liking” the object), and engaging in a transaction. Additionally, theaction log 220 may record a user's interactions with advertisements onthe online system 140 as well as with other applications operating onthe online system 140. In some embodiments, data from the action log 220is used to infer interests or preferences of a user, augmenting theinterests included in the user's user profile and allowing a morecomplete understanding of user preferences.

The action log 220 may also store user actions taken on a third partysystem 130, such as an external website, and communicated to the onlinesystem 140. For example, an e-commerce website may recognize a user ofan online system 140 through a social plug-in enabling the e-commercewebsite to identify the user of the online system 140. Because users ofthe online system 140 are uniquely identifiable, e-commerce websites,such as in the preceding example, may communicate information about auser's actions outside of the online system 140 to the online system 140for association with the user. Hence, the action log 220 may recordinformation about actions users perform on a third party system 130,including webpage viewing histories, advertisements that were engaged,purchases made, and other patterns from shopping and buying.

In one embodiment, the edge store 225 stores information describingconnections between users and other objects on the online system 140 asedges. Some edges may be defined by users, allowing users to specifytheir relationships with other users. For example, users may generateedges with other users that parallel the users' real-life relationships,such as friends, co-workers, partners, and so forth. Other edges aregenerated when users interact with objects in the online system 140,such as expressing interest in a page on the online system 140, sharinga link with other users of the online system 140, and commenting onposts made by other users of the online system 140.

In one embodiment, an edge may include various features eachrepresenting characteristics of interactions between users, interactionsbetween users and objects, or interactions between objects. For example,features included in an edge describe rate of interaction between twousers, how recently two users have interacted with each other, the rateor amount of information retrieved by one user about an object, or thenumber and types of comments posted by a user about an object. Thefeatures may also represent information describing a particular objector user. For example, a feature may represent the level of interest thata user has in a particular topic, the rate at which the user logs intothe online system 140, or information describing demographic informationabout a user. Each feature may be associated with a source object oruser, a target object or user, and a feature value. A feature may bespecified as an expression based on values describing the source objector user, the target object or user, or interactions between the sourceobject or user and target object or user; hence, an edge may berepresented as one or more feature expressions.

The edge store 225 also stores information about edges, such as affinityscores for objects, interests, and other users. Affinity scores, or“affinities,” may be computed by the online system 140 over time toapproximate a user's interest in an object or another user in the onlinesystem 140 based on the actions performed by the user. A user's affinitymay be computed by the online system 140 over time to approximate auser's interest for an object, interest, or other user in the onlinesystem 140 based on the actions performed by the user. Computation ofaffinity is further described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/978,265, filed on Dec. 23, 2010, U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/690,254, filed on Nov. 30, 2012, U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/689,969, filed on Nov. 30, 2012, and U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/690,088, filed on Nov. 30, 2012, each of which is hereby incorporatedby reference in its entirety. Multiple interactions between a user and aspecific object may be stored as a single edge in the edge store 225, inone embodiment. Alternatively, each interaction between a user and aspecific object is stored as a separate edge. In some embodiments,connections between users may be stored in the user profile store 205,or the user profile store 205 may access the edge store 225 to determineconnections between users.

One or more advertisement campaigns (“ad campaigns”) are included in thead store 230. An ad campaign includes one or more advertisementsreceived from an advertiser for presentation to users of the onlinesystem 140 such as a social networking system, messaging system or anyother suitable online system. Each advertisement includes anadvertisement content (“ad content”), which is content presented to anonline system user, such as text data, image data, audio data, videodata, or any other suitable data. An advertisement may also associate adestination address with an ad content to specify a source of contentpresented to a user that accesses the advertisement when it ispresented. For example, the destination address identifies a landingpage including content that is presented to the user when the useraccesses the advertisement. The destination address can be included in adeep link.

Additionally, advertisements, such as those in an ad campaign, areassociated with a bid amount. The bid amount associated with anadvertisement specifies an amount of compensation an advertiser providesthe online system 140 for presenting the advertisement, for a userinteracting with the advertisement, or for another suitable interactionwith the advertisement. Based on the bid amount associated with anadvertisement, the online system 140 determines an expected value to theonline system 140 for presenting the advertisement to a user. Forexample, the expected value is an amount of monetary compensationreceived by the online system 140 from an advertiser for presentation ofthe advertisement to a user, for a user interacting with the presentedadvertisement, or based on any other suitable condition. In oneembodiment, the expected value is determined by multiplying the bidamount by a probability of the advertisement being accessed.

Additionally, advertisements, such as those in an ad campaign, may beassociated with one or more targeting criteria. An advertiser mayspecify targeting criteria associated with an advertisement. Targetingcriteria specify one or more characteristics of users eligible to bepresented with an advertisement associated with the targeting criteria.Associating different targeting criteria with different advertisementsin an ad campaign allows an advertiser to tailor presentation ofadvertisements to users having specific characteristics, allowingadvertisements with different ad content to be presented to users withdifferent characteristics. For example targeting criteria specifydemographic information, connections, or actions associated with a user.In some embodiments, targeting criteria may be associated with the adcampaign in its entirety, so multiple advertisements in the ad campaignare associated with the targeting criteria.

In one embodiment, targeting criteria may specify actions or types ofconnections between a user and another user or object of the onlinesystem 140. Targeting criteria may also specify interactions between auser and objects performed external to the online system 140, such as ona third party system 130. For example, targeting criteria identify usersthat have taken a particular action, such as sending a message toanother user, using an application, joining a group, leaving a group,joining an event, generating an event description, purchasing orreviewing a product or service using an online marketplace, requestinginformation from a third-party system 130, or any other suitable action.Including actions in targeting criteria allows advertisers to furtherrefine which users are eligible to be presented with advertisements froman ad campaign. As another example, targeting criteria identifies usershaving a connection to another user or object or having a particulartype of connection to another user or object.

An ad campaign can also include other information such as a budget thatspecifies a total amount of compensation an advertiser provides theonline system 140 for presenting advertisements included in the adcampaign. The budget may be allocated for the ad campaign as a whole orper advertisement. In addition, the advertiser may specify instructionsfor allocating the budget among the advertisements in the ad campaign.For example, the instructions specify modification of a bid amountassociated with an advertisement included in the ad campaign. Theinstructions may also include other suitable information describingallocation of budget among advertisements included in the ad campaign.

An ad campaign or one or more advertisements in an ad campaign, or anyother content presented inside or outside of the online system, mayinclude one or more deep links. A deep link is a link specifying anapplication different than an application presenting an advertisement(an “additional application”) and a specific state of the additionalapplication. The deep link for presenting content on a mobileapplication includes an application identifier and instructions and, invarious implementations, the application identifier can also be referredto as a scheme and the instructions can be in the form of a path and oneor more query strings instructing the application to present a state ofthe application such as a page and the order and/or format of the pathand query strings can differ for various operating systems. A state ofthe additional application identifies data received by the additionalapplication as well as data presented by the additional application. Forexample, a state of the additional application specifies useridentifying information provided by the user to the additionalapplication and specifies a format in which the user identifyinginformation is presented by the additional application as well asadditional data presented by the additional application.

Various information (e.g., the application identifier and theinstructions) in a deep link can be used in a custom address scheme(e.g., a URL) that allows the mobile app-to-app linking similar to theaddress scheme used for linking of content on the web. However, thecustom address scheme differs from an address scheme used for presentingcontent on the web (e.g., via a web browser) and can also differ forpresenting content on various client devices. For example, an addressscheme used for presenting content on the web may have a format of“protocol://domain:path?query_string” to present content at“path?query_string” on “domain” using “protocol” to access the content.The custom address scheme for presenting content via a mobileapplication may have a format of“application_identifier://path?query_string” for presenting contentlocated at “path?query_string” on a mobile application associated with“application_identifier.”

For various operating systems or types of client devices, the customaddress scheme may differ in format as well. For example, the customaddress scheme for a first client operating IOS® can be“application_identifier://launch?itm=#” for presenting a content item(“itm=#”) in an application associated with “application_identifier.”The custom address scheme for a second client operating ANDROID™ can be“application_identifier://item/view?id=#” for presenting a content item(“id=#”) in an application associated with “application_identifier.”

In various embodiments, a deep link associated with an advertisement (orwith an advertising campaign) or other content includes an applicationidentifier, one or more instructions, and metadata. Alternatively, themetadata may be associated with the advertisement/content and notincluded in the deep link. The application identifier is informationidentifying an application. For example, an application identifier is aname of the additional application or an identifier associated with theapplication by an application installation interface (e.g., apurchasing, installing, or downloading identifier associated with theapplication) executing on a client device 110, or any other suitableinformation for executing the application via the client device 110 orpresenting information from the application via the client device 110.If the application associated with the deep link is installed on aclient device 110 presenting an advertisement/content associated withthe deep link, a name of the application is determined from theapplication identifier in the deep link to execute the application.However, if the application associated with the deep link is notinstalled on the client device 110, a purchasing, installing, ordownloading identifier is determined from the application identifier andcommunicated to an application installation interface or a web browserexecuting on the client device 110 to prompt a user to obtain theapplication corresponding to the application identifier.

One or more instructions associated with the application are alsoincluded in a deep link. The one or more instructions identify aspecific state of the application, so the application operates in thespecific state when the one or more instructions are executed by theapplication. For example, the instructions identify content associatedwith an advertisement (e.g., a description of a product or service beingadvertised) for presentation by the application associated with theapplication identifier. However, the one or more instructions mayidentify any suitable information for presentation by the applicationassociated with the application identifier. Different instructions maybe associated with deep links included in different advertisements orwith different advertising campaigns. Instructions included in a deeplink are further described in conjunction with FIG. 3.

In some embodiments, a deep link included in an advertisement or othercontent also includes metadata describing additional information forcommunication to an application identified by the application identifierof the deep link. For example, metadata associated with the user,associated with the application, associated with the client device 110,or associated with an operating system of the client device 110 isincluded in the deep link. For example, metadata included in a deep linkmay be used by the application identified by the deep link to formatpresentation of information to the user. The metadata can also includeuser profile information of a user presented with a deep link. The userprofile information can include a user identifier, an access token, andan expiration time. The access token indicates whether the applicationassociated with the application identifier has been previously or iscurrently authenticated with the online system 140 associated with theapplication. The expiration time can be an amount of time in which theapplication is authenticated with the online system 140. Further, themetadata can include a web address in addition to the custom addressscheme that can be used to present content associated with the deep linka web browser. Thus, if the application associated with the applicationidentifier is not installed on the client device 110, the content of thedeep link can still be presented on the web browser using the webaddress. The metadata can also include referrer information describingthe information of an application that presented the deep link includingan application identifier associated with an additional application. Themetadata can also include a store identifier associated with theapplication for use when presenting the application for purchase,download, or install on an application installation interface.

Information (e.g., application identifier, instructions, metadata, andany combination thereof) in a deep link is also associated with specifictags based on information associated with the client device. As anexample, tags associated with the application identifier for use on aclient device with a first operating scheme such as iOS® would differfrom tags associated with the application identifier for use on a clientdevice with a second operating scheme such as ANDROID™ just as tagsassociated with the application identifier for use on a first type ofclient device such as an iPHONE™ would differ from tags associated witha second type of client device such as a WINDOWS™ phone. Other operatingschemes with differing custom address schemes include WINDOWS™ phone,BlackberryOS (e.g., Blackberry 10), FIREFOX OS™, SAILFISH OS™, TIZEN™,UBUNTU TOUCH OS™, and WEBOS® and additional types of client devicesinclude iPHONE™, iPAD™, ANDROID™, and WINDOWS™ phone.

As an example, for an application executing on a client device usingIOS®, the tags associated with the application identifier would include“al,” “ios,” and “app_name” formatted as “al:ios:app_name.” For anapplication executing on the client device using ANDROID™, the tagsassociated with the application identifier would include “al,”“android,” and “app_name” formatted as “al:android:app_name.” As shownin the example, some tags (e.g., “al” and “app_name”) may be the samefor client devices using differing operating systems but other tags(e.g., “ios” and “android”) differ for the client devices. The tags thatare different can identify the type of device or operating system usedby the client device such as “ios” for client devices operating iOS®,“iphone” for iPHONE™ client devices, “ipad” for iPAD™ client devices,“android” for ANDROID™ client devices or client devices using ANDROID™,“windows_phone” for WINDOWS™ phone client devices, “windows” for clientdevices operating WINDOWS™, and “windows_universal” for client devicesoperating WINDOWS™ universal.

The application linking module 235 provides instructions to third-partysystem 130, such as application developers, for inclusion inapplications. When executed by an application, the instructionsconfigure a state of the application based on information or commandsspecified by the instructions. Instructions provided by the applicationlinking module 235 are in a format compatible with the application inwhich ads would be presented, with the application linking module 235,the online system 140, or any combination thereof. For example, theapplication linking module 235 can also provide a software developmentkit (“SDK”) to third-party systems 130 for inclusion in applicationsthat includes instructions for configuring application states. Theprovided instructions for inclusion in additional applications wouldwork in conjunction with instructions received by an application via adeep link identifying the application to configure a state of theapplication based on the instructions from the deep link.

The deep link generation module 240 generates a deep link for a state ofan application such as an application associated with the online system140 or an application associated with an advertiser advertising productsin the online system 140. The generated deep link can be generated foran application using a custom address scheme used by the application andincludes an application identifier and one or more instructions. Forexample, the deep link is generated using a scheme name, a path and, oneor more query strings. The scheme name is an application identifieridentifying the application to which the deep link is linking and thepath and one or more query strings are instructions in the deep linkspecifying a state or location in the application associated with theapplication identifier. The state of an application associated with anadvertiser can be a page displaying a product of the advertiser asdescribed below in conjunction with FIGS. 3, 4 and 7. The state of theapplication associated with the online system 140 can also be a pageassociated with an event as described below in conjunction with FIG. 6.

The application linking addressability store 245 stores applicationidentifiers, information included in deep links, metadata associatedwith deep links and any other suitable information associated with deeplinks. Stored information can also be stored in association withpermission information from a user (e.g., an advertiser) associated withthe stored information. Thus, users of the online system 140 can requestinformation stored in the application linking addressability store 245,allowing for users to easily link into application associated with theonline system 140 or out of the application into an additionalapplication, where information describing deep linking into theadditional application is stored in the application linkingaddressability store 245.

The web server 250 links the online system 140 via the network 120 tothe one or more client devices 110, as well as to the one or more thirdparty systems 130. The web server 250 serves web pages, as well as othercontent, such as JAVA®, FLASH®, XML and so forth. The web server 250 mayreceive and route messages between the online system 140 and the clientdevice 110, for example, instant messages, queued messages (e.g.,email), text messages, short message service (SMS) messages, or messagessent using any other suitable messaging technique. A user may send arequest to the web server 250 to upload information (e.g., images orvideos) that are stored in the content store 210. Additionally, the webserver 250 may provide application programming interface (API)functionality to send data directly to native client device operatingsystems, such as IOS®, ANDROID™, WEBOS® or BlackberryOS.

Communicating Information Between Applications Via Interaction with anAdvertisement

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a method for presentingcontent associated with an advertisement using an additional applicationidentified by the application to a user of an online system 140. Invarious embodiments, the steps described in conjunction with FIG. 3 maybe performed in different orders. Additionally, in some embodiments, themethod may include different and/or additional steps than those shown inFIG. 3. The functionality described in conjunction with FIG. 3 may beprovided by an application interface module 115 of a client device 110,in one embodiment, or may be provided by any other suitable component,or components, in other embodiments.

The online system 140 maintains information describing variousadvertisements and identifies a content item such as an ad forpresentation to a user of the online system 140. The identifiedadvertisement is communicated from the online system 140 to a clientdevice 110 for presentation 305 to the user. For example, an applicationexecuting on the client device 110, such as an application associatedwith the online system 140, presents 305 the ad to the user. The ad isassociated with an advertiser and targeting criteria and includes adcontent and a deep link. As described above in conjunction with FIG. 2,the deep link is information specifying an application and a specificstate in the application. In various embodiments, the deep link includesan application identifier and one or more instructions. Additionally,the deep link may include metadata. The application identifier isinformation identifying an additional application other than theapplication presenting 305 the ad, such as a name of the additionalapplication or an identifier for the additional application used by anapplication installation interface or by a third-party system 130. Themetadata may include information describing the client device 110,describing the user presented the ad, describing the applicationpresenting 305 the ad, or any combination thereof. The identifier andmetadata are further described above in conjunction with FIG. 2.

Instructions in a deep link cause the additional application identifiedby the deep link to be launched or opened to a specified state. Forexample, the instructions are communicated to the additionalapplication, which is configured to the specific state by executing theinstructions. The instructions included in the deep link may vary forvarious ads or ad content in ads. For example, if the ad is for aspecific product or service, the instructions may configure theadditional application to present content describing the specificproduct or service. If the ad includes an offer for the user, then theinstructions may configure the additional application to apply the offerto a purchase or other interaction with the additional application. Asanother example, one or more instructions may include informationidentifying inputs to one or more input fields used by the additionalapplication. In another example, if the ad associated with the deep linkis associated with an action to be performed by the user, the one ormore instructions communicate information to the additional applicationfor performing the action. The instructions can be specified by theadvertiser associated with the ad, generated by the online system 140based on ad content of the ad, specified using any other suitablemethod, or any combination thereof. Additional examples and use casesfor instructions included in a deep link are further described below.

When the user interacts with the presented application via the clientdevice 110, the application executing on the client device 110 thatpresents 305 the ad receives 310 an indication of the user interaction.For example, when the user interacts with a portion of a display deviceof the client device 110 (e.g., contacts the portion of the displaydevice with a finger or with a stylus) in which the ad is presented 305,the application receives 310 the indication. As another example, theindication is received 310 by the application when the client device 110receives a gesture from the user with the display device or with anotherinput device that contacts at least a portion of the display devicewhere the ad is presented 305. However, the indication may be received310 when the user performs any suitable interaction with the presentedad via the client device 110. For example, the user interacts with thead by providing an audio command, by approaching the portion of thedisplay device presenting the ad with a physical stylus to a thresholddistance from a surface of the display device, or any other interactionor gesture indicating selection of the ad.

After receiving 310 the indication that the user interacted with the ad,the application determines 315 if the additional application identifiedby the deep link in the ad is installed on the client device 110. If theapplication determines 315 that the additional application identified bythe deep link is not installed on the client device 110, an applicationinstallation interface or web page for purchasing, downloading, orinstalling the additional application is presented 320 via the clientdevice 110. In some embodiments, the application identifier from thedeep link is communicated to the application installation interface, soinformation for purchasing, downloading, or installing the additionalapplication specified by the application identifier when the applicationinstallation interface is presented 320. Communicating the applicationidentifier from the deep link to the application installation interfacesimplifies purchase or installation of the additional application viathe application installation interface.

However, if the application determines 315 that the additionalapplication is installed on the client device 110, the one or moreinstructions from the deep link are communicated 325 from theapplication presenting 305 the ad to the additional application. Forexample, the application compares a name of the additional applicationfrom the application identifier of the deep link to informationmaintained by the client device 110 identifying applications installedon the client device 110. If the information maintained by the clientdevice 110 identifies an application name matching the name of theadditional application, instructions (and metadata, if applicable) fromthe deep link are communicated 325 from the application to theadditional application. Alternatively, the application identifier fromthe deep link is communicated 325 from the application to the additionalapplication, and if the additional application communicates aconfirmation to the application that the additional application isassociated with the application identifier, the application communicates325 the instructions and metadata, if included in the deep link, to theadditional application.

In addition, interaction information describing the user's interactionwith the ad may also be communicated 325 from the application to theadditional application. For example, if the ad includes multiple optionsfor the user to select, then the interaction information includes anoption selected by the user's interaction with the ad. Examples ofoptions included in an ad include a selection of a product or serviceover another product or service, a selection of an action over anotheraction, or any other suitable selection of content presented by the ad.In some embodiments, the interaction information may be communicated 325after communicating the instructions to the additional client device ormay be communicated 325 after the application receives confirmation thatthe additional application is associated with the applicationidentifier. Interaction information is further described below inconjunction with analytic information in FIG. 5.

By executing the instructions from the deep link received from theapplication, the additional application is configured into a statespecified by the instructions. The state of the additional applicationfrom execution of the instructions from the deep link is presented 330via the client device 110. The state of the additional application isbased on data received by the application as well as data presented bythe additional application. As the instructions from the deep linkprovide data to the additional application, executing the instructionscauses the additional application to present content based on the dataprovided by the instructions. In one embodiment, the instructionsinclude information describing the content of the ad, so the state ofthe additional application includes the information describing thecontent of the ad. Additionally, interaction information describing theuser's interaction with the ad may also be used by the additionalapplication to determine the state presented 330 via the client device110.

For example, if the instructions from the deep link communicated 325 tothe additional application from the application identify informationassociated with a product, service, or object, executing theinstructions causes the additional application to present 330 a state inwhich the information associated with a product is presented via theadditional application (e.g., the additional application presents a pageassociated with the product, service, or object). In another example, ifthe instructions specify information for populating fields, executingthe instructions causes the additional application to populate thefields identified by the instructions with the specified information. Asanother example, the instructions identify an action and one or moreparameters for performing the action, so the additional applicationperforms the action based on the one or more parameters when it executesthe instructions. If the additional application performs an action, thestate of the additional application displayed 330 may includeinformation associated with additional actions (e.g., a confirmation ofthe action). Additional examples of presented states of the additionalapplication are further described below.

The presented state of the additional application may also include alink (e.g., a hyperlink) or a deep link (also referred to herein as areverse deep link) identifying the application from which theinstructions were received. Accessing this link or deep linkcommunicates instructions to the application that, when executed by theapplication, cause presentation of the application in a state based onthe instructions. For example, accessing a deep link associated with theapplication and presented by the additional application causes theclient device 110 to present the application. Based on the instructionsin the deep link identifying the application, the state of theapplication when the indication of interaction with the ad was received310 is presented.

In some embodiments, the additional application communicatesinstructions to the application based on the presented state of theadditional application. For example, if the presented state of theadditional state makes use of information maintained by the applicationbut not included in the instructions communicated 325 to the additionalapplication, the additional application may communicate instructions tothe application for the information maintained by the application. Forexample, if the user purchases a product or service by interacting withthe presented state of the additional application, but paymentinformation was not included in the instructions sent to the additionalapplication by the application, the additional application communicatesinstructions to the application to prompt the user to verify paymentinformation or obtain payment information from the user. In thisexample, after obtaining payment information, the application maycommunicate a confirmation of payment to the additional application. Inanother example, if the user allows transfer of payment information(e.g., encrypted payment information) between the application and theadditional application, when the user purchases a product or a servicevia the presented state of the additional application, the additionalapplication communicates instructions to the application requesting thatthe application communicate the payment information to the additionalapplication.

In some embodiments, the additional application allows the user tocommunicate information from the additional application to theapplication by associating a deep link identifying the application withcontent provided by the additional application. The deep linkidentifying the application may include instructions identifying thecontent as well as instructions for presenting or maintaining thecontent via the application. In one embodiment, a deep link isassociated with an input included in the additional application andidentifies the application as well as instructions for the applicationto present content from the additional application. For example, anindication of a purchase made via an additional application iscommunicated to an application associated with the social networkingsystem 140 via a deep link identifying the application associated withthe social networking system 140 and the indication of the purchase,allowing the indication of the purchase to be presented to additionalsocial networking system users, subject to one or more privacy settings.To present the content from the additional application, the deep linkassociated with an input or with content provided by the additionalapplication includes instructions identifying the content andinstructions for populating one or more fields in the application forpresenting or for maintaining information associated with the additionalapplication. As an example, an application includes an input forpresenting content maintained by the application via an applicationassociated with an online system 140, the input includes a deep linkidentifying the online system 140 and instructions for mappinginformation describing the content presented by the application tofields used by the application associated with the online system 140 forgenerating a story or other data for presenting the content via theonline system 140; the instructions in the deep link associated with theinput may also include a command to post a story describing the contentmaintained by the application via the online system 140 when theapplication associated with the online system 140 receives theinstructions describing the content maintained by the application. Insome embodiments, content from the additional application is notcommunicated to the application unless the user provides permission thatthe content may be communicated to the application.

As described above, deep links included in various ads may havedifferent instructions. Additionally, deep links may be associated withinputs presented via an application to communicate instructions from theapplication to an additional application, so interacting with an inputpresented by an application configures the state of the additionalapplication identified by a deep link associated with the input. Forpurposes of illustration, various examples of instructions included indeep links and example states of additional applications based onexecution of the instructions are described below.

Displaying Content Associated with an Advertised Product or Service

If the ad presented 305 to the user via an application identifies aspecific page (e.g., a page describing a product or service of theadvertiser), when the user interacts with the ad, the applicationcommunicates 325 instructions to the additional application fordisplaying 330 the specific page. Hence, when the additional applicationexecutes the instructions, the additional application retrievesinformation from the specific page and presents the retrievedinformation in the presented state of the additional application. If thepresented ad is a listing identifying information about a product forsale, such as a house, via the additional application, the instructionscommunicated 325 to the additional application include informationspecifying the product identified by the presented ad, allowing theadditional application to retrieve information about the product forpresentation 330 via the state of the additional application.

Completing Fields of the Additional Application

If the ad presented 305 to the user includes a deep link to a state ofthe additional application including fields for the user to provideinformation, instructions in the deep link may identify informationmaintained by the application for inclusion in one or more of the fieldsof the additional application. Communication of information from theapplication to the additional application is regulated by one or moreprivacy settings specified by the user, allowing the user to limitdistribution of information associated with the user and maintained bythe application. Subject to the one or more privacy settings,instructions in the deep link may identify a field of the additionalapplication and information from the application for inclusion in theidentified field. Additionally, the instructions may include a commandto automatically populate one or more of the fields with informationidentified by the instructions. For example, if the ad is forsubscribing to a service, the state of the additional applicationassociated with the presented 305 ad includes input fields forspecifying a first name, a last name, an email address, a phone number,an address, or any other suitable information for subscribing to theservice. In this example, the instructions in the deep link includeinformation such as the first name, the last name, and other informationmaintained by the application as well as a field of the additionalapplication associated with different information maintained by theapplication. Hence, fields maintained by the additional application arepopulated with information associated with various fields from theinstructions, reducing the information for the user to provide to thefields of the additional application.

Apply Advertisement Content to Additional Application

If the ad presented 305 to the user includes content for use by theadditional application, instructions from the deep link communicated 325to the additional application by the application describe use of thecontent from the application by the additional application. For example,the ad specifies a coupon or discount code to apply to an objectprovided by the additional application; hence, the instructions sent tothe additional application identify the coupon or discount code and theobject to which the coupon or discount code is applied. As an example,if the advertisement describes a coupon for 20% off on sale items for anonline shopping application, instructions sent to the online clothingsite by the application through a deep link identify the coupon forapplication to eligible items selected by the user via the onlineshopping application. In this example, the presented state of the onlineshopping application identifies items selected by the user with thecoupon applied to prices of eligible selected items or other informationindicating the coupon was applied.

Action Associated with Advertisement

If the ad includes an input for performing an action via the additionalapplication (e.g., “buy,” “purchase,” “bid,” “book,” “vote,” “play,” orany other suitable prompt for a user to interact with the ad), theinstructions communicated to the additional application includeinformation for performing the action. Based on the receivedinstructions, the additional application performs the action based onthe instructions. Hence, the presented state of the additionalapplication may indicate that the action was performed or may presentinformation describing subsequent actions based on the executed action.

For example, if the ad includes an input for purchasing a product orservice advertised in the ad, instructions communicated 325 to theadditional application by the application identify the purchased productor service as well as a confirmation of received or processed paymentfor the product or service. For example, the user is prompted with aquestion when interacting with the ad requesting a preference for payingvia the application or additional application, and the instructionscommunicated 325 to the additional application are based on the user'sresponse to the question; thus, the additional application may promptthe user for payment information or receive confirmation of payment fromthe application. In another embodiment, if the user authorizes theapplication to communicate payment information to the additionalapplication, the instructions to the additional application identify theproduct or service as well as encrypted payment information. Paymentinformation may be encrypted using any suitable method, such as a hashof the payment information. Alternatively, based on the instructionsfrom the application, the additional application presents 330 a state inwhich the user is prompted to provide payment information in one or morefields; as described above, the instructions from the application to theadditional application may automatically populate one or more fieldswith information from the application.

If the ad includes an input for voting in a survey, instructionscommunicated 325 to the additional application include the user's voteand application of the user's vote to survey results presented 330 inthe state of the additional application. In this example, the presentedstate of the additional application describes the survey resultsincluding the user's vote received via interaction with the ad.

In another example, the ad includes an input for playing a file in anadditional application, so the instructions communicated 325 to theadditional application identify the file and include command to play thefile. One or more of the instructions may also specify informationdescribing the file or a representation of the file to be presented bythe additional application. For example, if the file is a song, then therepresentation of the file may be a name of the song, a title of thesong, a cover of an album associated with the song, additional songs bythe artist of the song, or any other suitable information associatedwith the song. In this example, the presented 330 state of theadditional application is the displayed representation of the file aswell as the presentation of the file via the additional application.

In another example, if the ad includes an input for generating a searchquery for searching for content presented by the ad, instructionscommunicated 325 to the additional application include a search querybased on the content presented by the ad. The instructions may alsoinclude information about the content presented by the ad for use withthe search query. For example, if the ad presents an event such as anopening of a new restaurant, instructions in a deep link included in thead may include a command to search for open reservations for the newrestaurant within a user-specified time interval. As another example, ifthe ad presents an event such as a new movie playing at a local theater,instructions in a deep link included in the ad include a command tosearch for movie times for the new movie at a theater within a thresholddistance of the client device 110 within a user-specified time interval.In another example, the ad specifies a travel destination, soinstructions in the deep link included in the ad include a command tosearch for hotels, restaurants, or any other landmarks within athreshold distance of the travel destination. For these examples, thecorresponding search results are the presented state of the additionalapplication.

Action Associated with Input

An application may associate one or more inputs (or other content items)with deep links, allowing interaction with an input associated with adeep link to perform an action via an additional application identifiedby the deep link. For example, an input presented by the application isassociated with a deep link identifying the additional application andinstructions for performing an action associated with the input via theadditional application. When the additional application executes theinstructions in the deep link, a state of the additional applicationindicating the action was performed, presenting information fromapplication of the action, or presenting information describingsubsequent actions based on the executed action is presented.

For example, the application presents an input for using an additionalapplication to view or play a file identified by the application andassociates a deep link with the input identifying the additionalapplication and including instructions that cause the additionalapplication to retrieve and play or present the file when executed bythe additional application. One or more of the instructions may alsospecify information describing the file or a representation of the fileto be presented by the additional application. For example, if the fileis a song, then the representation of the file may be a name of thesong, a title of the song, a cover of an album associated with the song,additional songs by the artist of the song, or any other suitableinformation associated with the song. In this example, the presentedstate of the additional application displays the representation of thesong while the song is played or otherwise presented.

In another example, an application includes an input for generating asearch query based on content in the application and communicating thesearch query to an additional application, which presents 330 a stateincluding search results based on the search query. The input isassociated with a deep link identifying the additional application andincluding instructions describing a search query and, optionally, one ormore search parameters. For example, if the application presents contentidentifying a business, an input associated with the content isassociated with a deep link identifying a mapping application andinstructions for a search query based on information about the business(e.g., an address). In this example, a map identifying the physicallocation of the business is presented as the state of the mappingapplication. Similarly, an input in an application associated withcontent identifying a restaurant or a movie is associated with a deeplink identifying an additional application and instructions for theadditional application to search for reservations for the restaurant orfor show times for the movie. The instructions in the preceding examplemay also specify search parameters for the additional application, suchas a geographic location and threshold distance to the restaurant or toa theater from the geographic location or a time interval in which tosearch. In another example, an application identifies a traveldestination, so instructions in a deep link associated with the traveldestination include a command for an additional application to searchfor hotels, restaurants, or any other landmarks within a thresholddistance of the travel destination. As another example, a deep link isassociated with an input corresponding to data presented by theapplication, where the deep link identifies an additional applicationand instructions identifying a search query for the additionalapplication to compare to data from one or more sources to identifysearch results. For these examples, the corresponding search results arethe presented state of the additional application. Hence, associating adeep link with an input or content presented by an application allowsthe application to leverage capabilities of one or more applications,improving user interaction with the application.

Communicating States Between Applications

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a method for communicating astate of an application to an additional application identified by theapplication and presenting a deep link associated with the state of theapplication to a user of the online system 140. In various embodiments,the steps described in conjunction with FIG. 4 may be performed indifferent orders. Additionally, in some embodiments, the method mayinclude different and/or additional steps than those shown in FIG. 4.The functionality described in conjunction with FIG. 4 may be providedby an application interface module 115 of a client device 110, in oneembodiment, the deep link generation module 240, in another embodiment,or may be provided by any other suitable component, or components, inother embodiments.

As described previously in conjunction with FIG. 3, a content item iscommunicated from the online system 140 to a client device 110 forpresentation 305 to the user, for example, via a first state of anapplication executing on the client device 110 associated with theonline system 140. When the user interacts with the presentedapplication via the client device 110, the application executing on theclient device 110 that presents 305 the content item receives 310 anindication of the user interaction. After receiving 310 the indicationthat the user interacted with the content item, the applicationdetermines 315 if the additional application identified by the deep linkin the content item is installed on the client device 110. If theapplication determines 315 that the additional application is installedon the client device 110, the one or more instructions from the deeplink are communicated 325 from the application presenting 305 thecontent item to the additional application and, by executing theinstructions from the deep link received from the application, theadditional application is configured into a state specified by theinstructions. Then, the state of the additional application is presented330 via the client device 110.

The presented state of the additional application may also include alink (e.g., a hyperlink) or a deep link, herein called a reverse deeplink, identifying the application from which the instructions werereceived. In one embodiment, the online system 140 also communicates 325the reverse deep link to the client device 110 in addition to thecontent item. For example, the reverse deep link includes one or moreinstructions and the application presents the content item in a statespecified by the one or more instructions in the reverse deep link. Inanother embodiment, the application executing on the client device 110presenting 305 the content item generates the reverse deep linkincluding an additional application identifier associated with theapplication and one or more additional instructions describing the stateof the application executing on the client device 110 when the contentitem was presented 305.

The reverse deep link can also include content describing the state ofthe application when the content item was presented 305. If the state ofthe application presented the content item, the content describing thestate can describe the content item, describe a user associated with thecontent item, present an option to return to the application, or anyother suitable description of other content presented in the state ofthe application. If the one or more instructions completed fields in theadditional application, the content describing the state of theapplication can include an option to return to the application or anoption to allow the application to communicate further information suchas payment information. If the state of the application is a specifiedlevel when presenting the content item, the content describing the stateof the application can state the specified level, provide an option toreturn to the specified level, or describe any other informationassociated with the specified level.

The reverse deep link is communicated 325 from the applicationpresenting 305 the content item to the additional application. In oneembodiment, the reverse deep link is displayed as a banner adjacent toan upper or lower boundary of a display device of the client device inwhich the state of the additional application is presented 330, aspreviously described in conjunction with FIG. 3. The content included inthe reverse deep link can also be presented as well in the state of theadditional application. Therefore, the context provides the userinformation describing the state of the application before the userinteracts with the reverse deep link.

When the user interacts with the reverse deep link via the client device110, an additional indication is received by the client device 110. Theuser interaction can be a similar user interaction received as describedin conjunction with FIG. 3 in step 310. For example, the additionalinteraction is received by the additional application and communicatedto the application associated with the additional application identifierincluded in the reverse deep link. After receiving the additionalindication, one or more additional instructions included in the reversedeep link are communicated by the client device 110 to the applicationassociated with the reverse deep link. Alternatively, the applicationreceives 405 a notice of the additional interaction as well as the oneor more additional instructions included in the reverse deep link. Asdescribed previously, the application executes the one or moreadditional instructions and presents 410 a state of the applicationbased on the one or more additional instructions.

In some embodiments, the additional application communicatesinstructions to the application based on the presented state of theadditional application, based on a user request, or any combinationthereof. For example, if the presented state of the additional statemakes use of information maintained by the application but not includedin the instructions communicated 325 to the additional application, theadditional application may communicate instructions to the applicationfor the information maintained by the application. The additionalapplication may communicate the instructions upon a request receivedfrom the user where the request confirms communication or approvescommunication of the instructions. For example, if the user purchases aproduct or service by interacting with the presented state of theadditional application, but payment information was not included in theinstructions sent to the additional application by the application, theadditional application communicates instructions to the application toprompt the user to verify payment information or obtain paymentinformation from the user. In this example, after obtaining paymentinformation, the application may communicate a confirmation of paymentto the additional application. In another example, if the user allowstransfer of payment information (e.g., encrypted payment information)between the application and the additional application, when the userpurchases a product or a service via the presented state of theadditional application, the additional application communicatesinstructions to the application requesting that the applicationcommunicate the payment information to the additional application.

As described above, reverse deep links included in various content itemsmay have different instructions. Additionally, reverse deep links may beassociated with inputs presented via an additional application tocommunicate instructions from the additional application to anapplication, so interacting with an input presented by an additionalapplication configures the state of the application identified by areverse deep link associated with the input. The reverse deep link canalso include context describing the state of the application when thecontent item was presented 305 as well as other options available to theuser if the content item was an ad, as further described below.

Displaying Content Associated with an Advertised Product or Service

If the ad presented 305 to the user via an application identifies aspecific page (e.g., a page describing a product or service of theadvertiser) and, when the user interacts with the ad, the applicationcommunicates 325 instructions to the additional application fordisplaying 330 the specific page, the application can also generate andcommunicate 325 a reverse deep link to the additional application. Thereverse deep link can include content that describes a state of theapplication when the ad was presented 305 such as the specific page.Hence, when the additional application presents the retrievedinformation in the presented state of the additional application, theadditional application also presents the reverse deep link, content inthe reverse deep link, and any combination thereof.

Completing Fields of the Additional Application

If the ad presented 305 to the user includes a deep link to a state ofthe additional application including fields for the user to provideinformation and the instructions in the deep link identify informationmaintained by the application for inclusion in one or more of the fieldsof the additional application, the application communicates 325 thoseinstructions and can also generate and communicate 325 a reverse deeplink to the additional application. Here, the reverse deep link caninclude content that describes the state of the application when the adwas presented 305 and can also indicate an option to the user to returnto the application 305 without providing information in the fields ofthe additional application.

Apply Advertisement Content to Additional Application

In the example where the ad presented 305 to the user includes contentfor use by the additional application, instructions from the deep linkcommunicated 325 to the additional application by the applicationdescribe use of the content from the application by the additionalapplication and the application can also generate and communicate 325 areverse deep link to return to a state of the application when the adwas presented 305. In one example, the content included in the reversedeep link, when presented to the user via the additional application,can specify various options for the user including returning to thestate of the application.

Action Associated with Advertisement

If the ad includes an input for performing an action via the additionalapplication (e.g., “buy,” “purchase,” “bid,” “book,” “vote,” “play,” orany other suitable prompt for a user to interact with the ad) and theinstructions communicated to the additional application includeinformation for performing the action, the application can also generateand communicate 325 a reverse deep link including content to theadditional application where the content describes a state of theapplication when the ad was presented 305. The content of the reversedeep link presented can describe an option to return to the state,describe an option to undo the action included in the ad, describe anoption to communicate additional information (e.g., payment information)from the application to the additional application, describe an optionto auto-populate fields of the additional application with theadditional information, or any combination thereof.

If the ad includes an input for voting in a survey and the instructionscommunicated 325 to the additional application include the user's voteand application of the user's vote to survey results presented 330 inthe state of the additional application, the reverse deep link caninclude context describing an option to share the user's action orinformation associated with the survey in the state of the application.

In another example, if the ad includes an input for playing a file in anadditional application and the instructions communicated 325 to theadditional application identify the file and include command to play thefile, the reverse deep link can include context describing an option toshare information associated with the file in the application or aspecified state of the application.

In another example, if the ad includes an input for generating a searchquery for searching for content presented by the ad and the instructionscommunicated 325 to the additional application include a search querybased on the content presented by the ad, the reverse deep link caninclude context describing an option to share the search results of thesearch query on the application, context describing the input to thesearch query, or any combination thereof.

Action Associated with Input

An application may associate one or more inputs (or other content items)with deep links, allowing interaction with an input associated with adeep link to perform an action via an additional application identifiedby the deep link.

In one example, if the application presents an input for using anadditional application to view or play a file identified by theapplication and associates a deep link with the input identifying theadditional application and including instructions that cause theadditional application to retrieve and play or present the file whenexecuted by the additional application, a reverse deep link generatedand communicated 325 can include context describing the file, the inputassociated with the file, and any combination thereof.

In another example, if an application includes an input for generating asearch query based on content in the application and communicating thesearch query to an additional application, which presents 330 a stateincluding search results based on the search query, a reverse deep linkgenerated and communicated 325 can include context describing theresults of the search query, the input, parameters for the search query,and any combination thereof.

Tracking Analytic Information Between Applications Via Interaction witha Deep Link

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a method for trackinganalytic information describing user interaction with a deep linkpresented to a user of an online system 140 on an application associatedwith the online system 140. In various embodiments, the steps describedin conjunction with FIG. 5 may be performed in different orders.Additionally, in some embodiments, the method may include differentand/or additional steps than those shown in FIG. 5. The functionalitydescribed in conjunction with FIG. 5 may be provided by an applicationinterface module 115 of a client device 110, in one embodiment, or maybe provided by any other suitable component, or components, in otherembodiments.

The online system 140 that communicates a content item to a clientdevice 110 for presentation to a user of the online system 140 can alsoprovide analytic information about the performance of the content itemon the online system 140 to a user (e.g., an advertiser if the contentitem is an ad) associated with the content item. The analyticinformation describes interactions with a deep link or a reverse deeplink and/or communications of a deep link or a reverse deep link betweenapplications on client devices 110.

As described previously in conjunction with FIGS. 3 and 4, a contentitem associated with a user is communicated from the online system 140to a client device 110 or a plurality of client devices 110 forpresentation 305 to an additional user or a plurality of additionalusers, for example, via an application executing on the client devices110 associated with the online system 140. The content item can becommunicated to the client device for presentation 305 responsive toreceiving 505 a request to present the content item to the plurality ofadditional users of the online system 140. In one embodiment, therequest can also include user identifiers (e.g., user names) identifyingthe plurality of additional users. When the user interacts with thepresented application via the client device 110, the applicationexecuting on the client device 110 that presents 305 the content itemreceives 310 an indication of the user interaction. When the indicationof the user interaction is received 310 by the client device 110, theclient device 110 sends or communicates 505 analytic informationdescribing the user interaction to the online system 140.

Over an interval of time, the online system 140 receives 515 analyticinformation where the analytic information describes one or more userinteractions by one or more of the plurality of additional users withthe deep link included in the presented content item. If the presentedstate of the additional application also includes a reverse deep linkthat identifies the application from which the instructions werereceived, the application can send a payload to the additionalapplication including a tracking request. The tracking request is arequest to track information associated with the reverse deep link suchas information describing user actions on the additional applicationthat are associated with the reverse deep link, content of the contentitem, and any combination thereof. The information of the trackingrequest is then communicated from the additional application to theapplication and the client device 110 sends 510 analytic informationdescribing the user interaction associated with the additionalindication received 420 to the online system 140.

Analytic information of a deep link or a reverse deep link included in acontent item can describe interaction statistics associated with thedeep link, information of applications receiving the deep link orcommunicating the deep link, user profile information of a user to whomthe deep link was presented, general social application usage dataassociated with a timestamp when the deep link was presented, and anycombination thereof. Analytic information describing interactionstatistics associated with the deep link include a type of userinteraction with the deep link such as a gesture, a contact with adisplay of the client device presenting the deep link. Interactionstatistics can include how many times a deep link was accessed on anapplication or on a client device 110 as well as what type of clientdevice 110 was used to interact with the deep link.

Analytic information describing applications receiving the deep link forpresentation, presenting the deep link, and communicating the deep linkinclude a number of times the deep link was presented on theapplication, how much time was spent on the application presenting thedeep link, and how much time was spent on the additional applicationassociated with an application identifier in the ad including the deeplink.

Analytic information describing user profile information of a user towhom the deep link was presented can include information stored in auser profile associated with the user on the online system 140, actionstaken by the user in the application presenting the ad or the additionalapplication associated with an application identifier in the ad, andobjects associated with those actions.

Analytic information describing general social application usage dataassociated with a timestamp when the deep link was presented include atimestamp associated with when the application presented the contentitem including the deep link, and a timestamp associated with when auser interacted with the content item. General social application usagedata can also include a number of users using the application oradditional application when the content item was presented 305 andinformation describing pairs of application with at least a threshold adconversion in an interval of time. For example, the pairs ofapplications can include an application associated with the onlinesystem 140 and a messenger application associated with the online system140, the application associated with the online system 140 and athird-party application, and a third-party application and anotherthird-party application. The online system 140 stores the analyticinformation in association with advertiser user associated with thecontent item, in association with the content item, or both.

The analytic information associated with a content item of advertiseruser can be presented 525 to the user via a client device 110 associatedwith the user. In another embodiment, the online system 140 analyzes 520the analytic information to identify suggestions for presentation of thecontent item and presents 525 the analytic information, the suggestions,or any combination thereof to the user associated with the content item.Suggestions and reasons for the suggestions can also be presented 525 tothe advertiser based on analysis of or processing of the analyticinformation. For example, if the content item is an ad and the ad hashigher ad conversion when presented at a first time interval rather thana second time interval, the suggestion can be to present the ad at thefirst time interval. If an ad has higher ad conversion when presented ona first application rather than a second application, the suggestion canbe to present the ad on the first application. Similarly, if an ad has ahigher ad conversion when presented to a first user rather than a seconduser, the suggestion can be to present the ad to the first user. Theanalytic information can also be used by the online system 140 to assistadvertisers in ad creation, as further described below in conjunctionwith FIG. 7.

Communicating Invites Between Applications

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a method for communicating aninvite to an event via an application to an additional application forpresentation to a user of the online system 140 associated with theadditional application. In various embodiments, the steps described inconjunction with FIG. 6 may be performed in different orders.Additionally, in some embodiments, the method may include differentand/or additional steps than those shown in FIG. 6. The functionalitydescribed in conjunction with FIG. 6 may be provided by an applicationinterface module 115 of a client device 110, in one embodiment, a deeplink generation module 240, in another embodiment, or may be provided byany other suitable component, or components, in other embodiments.

An online system 140 such as the social networking system sends 605 anevent creation interface to a client device 110 operated by a user ofthe online system 140 for creation of an event and the client device 110presents the event creation interface via an application associated withthe online system 140. The event creation interface is configured toenable a user to create an event and to request generation of a deeplink to invite recipient users to the event where the other recipientusers can be other users of the online system 140 or users of anadditional application that is not associated with the online system140. The event creation interface can also include options to specifydetails of the event. Event details can include one or more recipientusers of the invite, an option to create a page on the online system forthe event, a location of the event, a time of the event, or any othersuitable addition of information about the event. The details can beentered by selecting options presented in the event creation interfaceor by a user through fields or an interface in the event creationinterface.

The client device 110 receives 610 a request from the user to create aninvite for the event. The request from the user can be an interactionwith the presented event creation interface or selection of an option inthe presented event creation interface. The interaction can be by theuser with a portion of a display device of the client device 110 wherethe event creation interface is presented via a contact with the portionof the display device with a finger or with a stylus. As anotherexample, the interaction can be a gesture from the user with the displaydevice or with another input device that contacts at least a portion ofthe display device where the event creation interface is presented.Other suitable interactions include an audio command, approaching theportion of the display device presenting the event creation interfacewith a physical stylus to a threshold distance from a surface of thedisplay device, or any other interaction or gesture indicatinginteraction with the event creation interface.

Responsive to receiving 610 the request, the client device 110 generates615 an invite to the event and the invite includes a deep link includingone or more instructions describing presentation of details of theevent, presentation of a page in the online system 140 associated withthe event, presentation of a page in an additional application that isnot associated with the online system 140, or any combination thereof.In one embodiment, the deep link includes one or more instructionsdescribing presentation of details of the event to a user via an eventtracking application such as a calendar application, an emailapplication, or any other suitable application that can track events forthe user. In an alternative embodiment, the client device 110 sends therequest to the online system 140 and the online system 140 generates theinvite to the event. The generated invite is then sent to the clientdevice 110.

The client device 110 presents the invite to the user via theapplication associated with the online system. In another embodiment,the user can specify an alternative application associated with theonline system 140 or with any other suitable online system to receivethe invite and the client device 110 presents the invite to the user viathe alternative application.

In addition to receiving 610 the request to create an invite, the clientdevice 110 can also receive 610 a request to send or communicate theinvite to one or more client devices associated with the one or morerecipient users of the application associated with the online system140, the alternative application associated with the online system 140or with any other suitable online system, or any other suitablenetworking application including a messaging application, a communityapplication, or any other application associated with an online system.Then, the online system 140 sends the invite to the recipient usersautomatically after the invite to the event is generated 615.

In an alternative embodiment, the online system 140 sends 605 an eventcreation interface to a client device 110 operated by a user of theonline system 140 for presentation on an additional application that isnot associated with the online system 140 for creation of an event onthe online system 140. Thus, the client device 110 presents the eventcreation interface via the additional application that is not associatedwith the online system 140 and the request received 610 is to create aninvite to the event and the associated page of an application associatedwith the online system 140.

Then, the generated 615 invite to the event can be communicated 620 torecipient users associated with the online system 140 via theapplication associated with the online system 140, via the additionalapplication to recipient users associated with the online system 140,via the additional application to recipient users associated with theadditional online system associated with the additional application, orany combination thereof.

If a recipient user interacts with the deep link included in the invitevia the application associated with the online system 140, the clientdevice 110 operated by the recipient user presents the page associatedwith the event on the online system 140 via the application executing onthe client device 110. Alternatively, if a recipient user interacts withthe deep link included in the invite via the additional application thatis not associated with the online system 140, the client device 110communicates instructions included in the deep link to an applicationassociated with the application identifier (e.g., the applicationassociated with the online system 140 following the previous example)and the page associated with the event on the online system 140 ispresented via the application executing on the client device 110. In yetanother embodiment, if a recipient user interacts with the deep linkincluded in the invite, an event tracking application can presentdetails of the event and the details can be presented based oninstructions included in the deep link to present the details of theevent via the event tracking application. As an example, if a recipientuser interacts with the deep link included in the invite, an eventtracking application such as a calendar application can present detailsof the event as a calendar entry. Then, the recipient user can includeand track the event in their calendar application.

By executing the instructions from the deep link of the invite, theapplication associated with the online system 140 is configured into astate specified by the instructions in the deep link of the invite. Thestate of the application from execution of the instructions from thedeep link is presented via the client device 110 as previously describedin conjunction with FIG. 3. For example, the state of the additionalapplication presented includes the event details and can be the pageassociated with the event of the invite.

Generating an Ad Based on a Deep Link

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a method for generating an adfor an advertiser based on a deep link provided by the advertiser. Invarious embodiments, the steps described in conjunction with FIG. 7 maybe performed in different orders. Additionally, in some embodiments, themethod may include different and/or additional steps than those shown inFIG. 7. The functionality described in conjunction with FIG. 7 may beprovided by an application interface module 115 of a client device 110,in one embodiment, a deep link generation module 240, in anotherembodiment, in one embodiment, or may be provided by any other suitablecomponent, or components, in other embodiments.

The online system 140 receives 705 a request from an advertiser togenerate an ad, where the request specifies that the ad include a deeplink to a state of a second application of the advertiser (e.g., a linkto a product page in the advertiser's app). The request furtherspecifies generation of versions of the ad in which the deep link iscompatible with various types of client device mobile platforms. Forexample, the advertiser may wish to generate an ad that is compatiblewith mobile devices running ANDROID™, iOS®, etc. and across iPHONES™iPADS™, etc. The deep link will include different information (e.g., adifferent address or URL) for each of these different mobile platformsunder the custom address scheme described above. Rather than requiringthe advertiser to input the different information for each differentdevice type and OS, the online system 140 takes care of this for theadvertiser. The advertiser can thus request multi-device compatible ads,and provide the information for the deep link for one mobile platform,including providing an application identifier identifying the secondapplication along with the instructions describing the state of thesecond application for the deep link. This information can be used togenerate an ad for one mobile platform with a deep link, as previouslydescribed in conjunction with FIGS. 3-6. However, the online system 140can also generate versions of the ad for other mobile platforms.

In some embodiments, the request from the advertiser can also includevarious other details about the ad that are normally provided whencreating an ad, such as the ad creative content and targeting criteria.Targeting criteria can include one or more characteristics of userseligible to be presented with the generated ad, as described inconjunction with FIG. 2.

Based on the request from the advertiser, the online system 140determines 710 information corresponding to type-specific deep links foreach of the versions of the ad that the advertiser is requesting. Forexample, the online system 140 can auto populate various fields in an adcreation user interface that may have been presented to the advertiserfor creation of the ad. The advertiser can enter the content forcreation of the deep link for one type of mobile platform (e.g., forANDROID™), and the online system 140 can auto populate fields forcreation of versions of the ad with other type-specific deep links(e.g., for iOS®, iPHONE™, iPAD™).

The online system 140 then generates 715 the versions of the ad, eachversion comprising one of the determined type-specific deep links foruse with one of the various types of client device mobile platforms. Thetype-specific deep link is a deep link that is associated with a clientdevice mobile platform based on the specific tags associated withinformation in the deep link. As previously described in FIG. 2, basedon information describing a client device (e.g., type of client device110, operating system used by the client device 110), specific tags areassociated with the information included in the deep link. Therefore,the type-specific deep link associated with a first client device 110such as a client device 110 using a first operating system is a deeplink with tags specific to the first operating system. Thus, if a secondclient device 110 uses a second operating system, the online system 140can generate two ad versions, one for presentation on the firstoperating system and one for presentation on the second operatingsystem.

If a first client device 110 is associated with a user associated with afirst characteristic and a second characteristic where the first andsecond characteristics are included in the targeting criteria and asecond client device 110 is associated with another user associated withthe first characteristic and a third characteristic where the thirdcharacteristic is not included in the targeting criteria, the onlinesystem 140 can generate two ads for presentation to the user and theanother user. The online system 140 can present the one or more ads tothe advertiser who can then select a set of the one or more ads forpresentation to one or more users of the online system 140.

Alternatively, the online system 140 can also determine targetingcriteria for the generated ad if the targeting criteria were notpreviously provided by the advertiser. The targeting criteria can bedetermined based on analytic information associated with other ads ofthe advertiser previously presented on the online system 140, with adcontent in the generated ad, or any combination thereof. For example, ifthe analytic information included interaction statistics indicating adsincluding deep links associated with the advertiser are accessed morefrequently by users with client devices using a first operating systemthan by users with client devices using a second operating system, thetargeting criteria can be determined to include users associated withclient devices using the first operating system. The targeting criteriacan also be determined to include users associated with objectsassociated with users that have accessed deep links of the advertiserwith at least a threshold frequency in an interval of time. If deeplinks of the advertiser have been associated with timestamps in aninterval of time in a day based on the analytic information, targetingcriteria for the deep link can be determined to include presenting thegenerated ad at the interval of time in a day.

The online system 140 identifies users of the online system 140 topresent the generated ad based on the targeting criteria and sends thegenerated ad to client devices 110 associated with the identified usersfor presentation of the generated ad to the identified user via anapplication associated with the online system 140 executing on theclient device 110. If the generated ad includes a deep link, the onlinesystem 140 can receive analytic information describing user interactionswith the deep link. Then, the analytic information associated with thedeep link in the generated ad can be presented to the advertiser via aclient device 110 associated with the advertiser, as previouslydescribed in conjunction with FIG. 5.

Deep Linking Between a State of an Application to a State of anAdditional Application

FIGS. 8A-8D illustrate states of applications being linked to or fromvia a deep link. As shown in FIG. 8A, a content item 805 such as anadvertisement is presented on an application 810 executing on a clientdevice 110 for presentation to a user associated with the client device110. As previously described, the content item includes a deep link toan additional application on the client device. The deep link includesan application identifier identifying the additional application andincludes one or more instructions that when executed by the additionalapplication present a state of the additional application. The state canbe a page on the additional application, a content item of theadditional application, or any other suitable content that can bedisplayed. If the content item is an advertisement, the advertisement isassociated with an advertiser and targeting criteria and includes adcontent in addition to the deep link.

The client device 110 receives an indication of a user interaction 815with the deep link in the presented content item 805 and determineswhether the additional application 820 associated with the applicationidentifier is installed on the client device 110. Responsive todetermining the additional application 820 is installed on the clientdevice 110, the one or more instructions from the deep link arecommunicated to the additional application 820 and the additionalapplication 820 executes the one or more instructions to present a stateof the additional application 820, as shown in FIG. 8B. Responsive todetermining the additional application 820 is not installed on theclient device, an application installation interface 825 is presented tothe user for downloading, purchasing, or installing the additionalapplication, as shown in FIG. 8C.

The client device 110 can also communicate a second deep link 830allowing navigation back to a state of the application 810 when thecontent item 805 was presented, as shown in FIG. 8B. The second deeplink 830 also includes an application identifier identifying theapplication 810 and instructions describing the state of the application810 when the content item 805 was presented in FIG. 8A. User interactionwith the second deep link 830 communicates the instructions in thesecond deep link to the application 810 and presents the state of theapplication 810 when the content item 805 was presented, as shown inFIG. 8D.

Conclusion

The foregoing description of the embodiments has been presented for thepurpose of illustration; it is not intended to be exhaustive or to limitthe patent rights to the precise forms disclosed. Persons skilled in therelevant art can appreciate that many modifications and variations arepossible in light of the above disclosure.

Some portions of this description describe the embodiments in terms ofalgorithms and symbolic representations of operations on information.These algorithmic descriptions and representations are commonly used bythose skilled in the data processing arts to convey the substance oftheir work effectively to others skilled in the art. These operations,while described functionally, computationally, or logically, areunderstood to be implemented by computer programs or equivalentelectrical circuits, microcode, or the like. Furthermore, it has alsoproven convenient at times, to refer to these arrangements of operationsas modules, without loss of generality. The described operations andtheir associated modules may be embodied in software, firmware,hardware, or any combinations thereof.

Any of the steps, operations, or processes described herein may beperformed or implemented with one or more hardware or software modules,alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, asoftware module is implemented with a computer program productcomprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code,which can be executed by a computer processor for performing any or allof the steps, operations, or processes described.

Embodiments may also relate to an apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, and/or it may comprise a general-purpose computingdevice selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer programstored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in anon-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium, or any typeof media suitable for storing electronic instructions, which may becoupled to a computer system bus. Furthermore, any computing systemsreferred to in the specification may include a single processor or maybe architectures employing multiple processor designs for increasedcomputing capability.

Embodiments may also relate to a product that is produced by a computingprocess described herein. Such a product may comprise informationresulting from a computing process, where the information is stored on anon-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium and mayinclude any embodiment of a computer program product or other datacombination described herein.

Finally, the language used in the specification has been principallyselected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not havebeen selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter.It is therefore intended that the scope of the patent rights be limitednot by this detailed description, but rather by any claims that issue onan application based hereon. Accordingly, the disclosure of theembodiments is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of thescope of the patent rights, which is set forth in the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving a request topresent a content item associated with a user to a plurality ofadditional users of an online system via a mobile application associatedwith the online system, the mobile application executing on a clientdevice, the content item comprising a deep link comprising anapplication identifier identifying a second mobile application and oneor more instructions that when executed by the second mobile applicationpresent a state of the second mobile application; communicating, to aplurality of client devices associated with the plurality of additionalusers of the online system, the content item for presentation via afirst state of the first mobile application, the content item includinga second deep link identifying the first mobile application, the seconddeep link comprising one or more instructions for presenting the firststate of the first mobile application when the content item waspresented on the client device; receiving analytic information over aninterval of time, the analytic information describing one or more userinteractions by one or more of the plurality of additional users withthe deep link included in the presented content item; and presenting theanalytic information to the user associated with the content item. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein the deep link further comprises metadatadescribing additional information for communication to the second mobileapplication identified by the application identifier of the deep link,the additional information selected from a group consisting of: a webaddress associated with the state of the second mobile application,information describing the mobile application, information identifyingauthentication of access to the user's information in the mobileapplication, and any combination thereof.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the client device is associated with a type and one or more tagsare associated with the application identifier based on the type.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the client device is associated with anoperating system and one or more tags are associated with theapplication identifier based on the operating system.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the content item is an advertisement and includes anoffer for the user and the one or more instructions configure the secondmobile application to apply the offer to a product associated with thecontent item in the second mobile application.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the content item is an advertisement and is associated with anaction to be performed by the user and the one or more instructionscommunicate information to the second mobile application for performingthe action.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the action is selectedfrom a group consisting of: purchasing a product associated with thecontent item, performing a search on the state of the second mobileapplication, selecting an option on the state of the second mobileapplication, populating fields on the state of the second mobileapplication, and any combination thereof.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the analytic information is selected from a group consisting of:interaction statistics associated with the deep link, informationdescribing applications receiving the deep link or communicating thedeep link, user profile information of an additional user in theplurality of additional users to whom the deep link was presented,general social application usage data associated with a timestamp whenthe deep link was presented, and any combination thereof.
 9. The methodof claim 8, wherein interaction statistics associated with the deep linkare selected from a group consisting of: a type of user interaction withthe deep link, how many times the deep link was accessed on the mobileapplication, how many times the deep link was accessed on the secondmobile application, a type of client device used when interacting withthe deep link, and any combination thereof.
 10. The method of claim 8,wherein information describing applications is selected from a groupconsisting of: a number of times the deep link was presented on themobile application, a number of times the deep link was presented on thesecond mobile application, how much time was spent on the mobileapplication presenting the deep link, how much time was spent on thesecond mobile application presenting the deep link, and any combinationthereof.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein user information is selectedfrom a group consisting of: information stored in a user profileassociated with an additional user in the plurality of users presentedthe deep link, actions taken by an additional user in the plurality ofusers, objects associated with actions taken by an additional user inthe plurality of users, and any combination thereof.
 12. The method ofclaim 8, wherein general social application usage data is selected froma group consisting of: a timestamp associated with when the deep linkwas presented on the mobile application, a timestamp associated withwhen the deep link was interacted with on the mobile application, anumber of users using the mobile application when the deep link waspresented, information describing a conversation rate of deep linksassociated with the mobile application and the second mobileapplication, and any combination thereof.
 13. The method of claim 1,further comprising: communicating context describing a first state ofthe mobile application when the content item was presented.
 14. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: communicating a tracking requestto the mobile application for communication to the second mobileapplication, the tracking request requesting analytic informationdescribing user interaction with the second deep link on the secondmobile application.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting theanalytic information further comprises: analyzing the analyticinformation to identify suggestions for presentation of the contentitem; and presenting the suggestions to the user associated with thecontent item.
 16. A computer program product comprising a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereonthat, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to: receive arequest to present a content item associated with a user to a pluralityof additional users of an online system, the content item comprising adeep link comprising an application identifier identifying a secondmobile application and one or more instructions that when executed bythe second mobile application present a state of the second mobileapplication; communicate, to a plurality of client devices associatedwith the plurality of additional users of the online system, the contentitem for presentation via a first state of the first mobile application,the content item including a second deep link identifying the firstmobile application, the second deep link comprising one or moreinstructions for presenting a first state of the first mobileapplication when the content item was presented on the client device;receive analytic information over an interval of time, the analyticinformation describing one or more user interactions by one or more ofthe plurality of additional users with the deep link included in thepresented content item; and present the analytic information to the userassociated with the content item.
 17. The computer program product ofclaim 16, wherein the analytic information includes interactionstatistics associated with the deep link selected from a groupconsisting of: how many times the deep link was accessed on the mobileapplication, how many times the deep link was accessed on the secondmobile application, a number of times the deep link was presented on themobile application, a number of times the deep link was presented on thesecond mobile application, how much time was spent on the mobileapplication presenting the deep link, how much time was spent on thesecond mobile application presenting the deep link, a timestampassociated with when the deep link was presented on the mobileapplication, a timestamp associated with when the deep link wasinteracted with on the mobile application, a number of users using themobile application when the deep link was presented, informationdescribing a conversation rate of deep links associated with the mobileapplication and the second mobile application, and any combinationthereof.
 18. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein topresent the analytic information further comprises: analyze the analyticinformation to identify suggestions for presentation of the contentitem.
 19. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein to presentthe analytic information further comprises: present the suggestions tothe user associated with the content item.